


Honesty

by watermelonriddles



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 15:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10969884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watermelonriddles/pseuds/watermelonriddles
Summary: Complete silence. The pair of them had wasted their energy hurling insults at one another and now they had both retreated to opposite sides of their cells to be as far from each other as possible. At first, Ed would occasionally glance over to see that Oswald still had him fixed with the same look. That cold, calculated stare that told him he was a dead man the second they were free.





	Honesty

**Author's Note:**

> Set after 3x18.

Complete silence. The pair of them had wasted their energy hurling insults at one another and now they had both retreated to opposite sides of their cells to be as far from each other as possible. At first, Ed would occasionally glance over to see that Oswald still had him fixed with the same look. That cold, calculated stare that told him he was a dead man the second they were free. The look did soften over time and as it did Oswald lowered his head, not wishing to look at Ed second longer if he couldn’t hammer in that message.

The silence was deafening and Ed fought with himself not to speak. He kept telling himself that he would want to talk even if it wasn’t Oswald, that it was about the fact that he hadn’t had a conversation, or any kind of stimulation, for a good few hours. He kept telling himself that it was purely about human contact, ignoring the fact that he had survived without it for a long time before.

“How did you survive?” he asked, finally giving into his urge and breaking the silence.

“A girl named Ivy.”

Ed, momentarily stunned at the fact that Oswald had answered him so quickly, stared for a moment. “O- Oh? How?”

“Plants.”

He wasn’t too sure if that was supposed to be a joke or not, but he didn’t want to antagonise Oswald so he simply nodded. “How did you end up in here?”

“I killed one of theirs while looking for you.” Finally, he looked up and upon seeing the curious look on Ed’s face he laughed and shook his head. “I was looking for you so I could kill you. For what you did to me.”

“You know why I did that.”

“But did I deserve to die for it?”

Ed held onto the bars and pulled himself to his feet. He wandered towards Oswald’s cell and leaned against the bars that separated them.

“Perhaps not,” he admitted. “But you would never have admitted your wrong doing, you would never have been sorry. In the end, you weren’t sorry anyway.”

“I was sorry,” Oswald said as he pulled himself up.

“You were sorry for hurting me, you weren’t sorry for killing her. It was the fact that this had torn us apart instead of bringing us closer together. Otherwise, you never would have felt an ounce of guilt, you wouldn’t have even told me the truth.”

Oswald had made his way over to where Ed stood. He leaned against the bars too. They were both close enough that they could touch, but neither reached out.

“I would have chosen you,” Ed said when the silence stretched out a little. Oswald looked to him and Ed looked down for a moment. “Not like that, not in the way you wanted me to. It might have taken some time, but in the end, I would have. I loved her, Oswald, but if it came down to one or the other. It would have been you.”

Oswald debated arguing the point, but he pushed it down. “Why?”

“I may have done all that stuff to you, but I meant what I said, you’re my best friend.” Ed offered up a small smile. “I might not have loved you the way you wanted, but I did love you. You got me out of Arkham, you were there for me. I know it took some time, but you grew to trust me, to let me in. You’ll never know how much that meant to me.”

 “You told me you didn’t love me,” Oswald reminded.

“In that moment I didn’t want to love you.”

They both shared a look. It was clear that they were never going to come together on this. Oswald would continue to lack any guilt over killing Isabella and Ed would, at the very least, never want to admit any feelings for Oswald, he wouldn’t want to open up that door. It would allow for too much pain to get in, but they had to start somewhere.

“You can hate me all you want,” Ed said as he straightened up and began to look around. “You can plan to kill me all you want, but all of that is pointless if we’re stuck in here. Jim warned me against these people so who knows what they’ll do.”

“Yeah,” Oswald said, rolling his eyes. “He warned me too.”

For the first time, they shared a smile, a small laugh, before the pair continued to look around for something, anything to help with their escape.

“So we work together?” Ed asked.

“If it means getting out of here,” Oswald said. “But once we’re far enough away from here that’s the end of it. You and I are no longer a team.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Both of them refused to look at each other. Neither was exactly lying. Oswald did still want to get his revenge and Ed wouldn’t mind killing Oswald for real this time, but they would be lying if they said they didn’t wonder, even just a little, what it would be like if they simply made up, if they tried to move past everything that had happened.

But they couldn’t do that, they refused to.


End file.
